San Antonio officials moved Tuesday to support a feasibility study that could lay the groundwork for a diversion center in Bexar County aimed at steering people with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) away from the criminal justice system and into treatment.
District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo filed a Council Consideration Request in October calling for a joint city-county ad hoc committee and a centralized diversion and recovery system. The CCR lists potential stakeholders including San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, Sheriff Javier Salazar and District Attorney Joe Gonzales, among others.
The proposal advanced out of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and is expected to be briefed during a City Council B Session on Feb. 11.
A diversion center typically functions as a direct alternative to incarceration, designed to route eligible individuals to clinical care instead of criminal processing. At a press conference following the meeting, Castillo said San Antonio and Bexar County are the only major jurisdiction in Texas without an established jail diversion program of this kind.
“This is the thing that we should be doing to ensure that we can provide dignity and care for individuals,” she said.
Multiple diversion programs already exist in the county, including the Public Sobering Unit, where law enforcement can drop off individuals who might otherwise be charged with public intoxication, and the Crisis Care Center, which serves people in psychiatric crisis during disturbance calls.
Both programs are operated by the region’s mental health authority, the Center for Health Care Services. But CHCS President and CEO Jelynne LeBlanc-Jamison told council members the diversion center under consideration could serve a broader slice of the justice-involved population — particularly people with low-level, nonviolent misdemeanor charges who cycle through the system because of untreated mental illness or IDD.
“Our jail has become the largest hospital for mental health here in Bexar County,” LeBlanc-Jamison said during the committee briefing, citing data showing an average of 550 inmates each day received mental health treatment in custody in 2024.
LeBlanc-Jamison pointed to the county’s longstanding backlog of defendants who are deemed incompetent to stand trial and waiting for competency restoration services — a bottleneck that can keep people in jail for months before they receive treatment in a state psychiatric hospital.
In Texas, a defendant is deemed incompetent to stand trial when a judge finds they cannot understand the charges or assist in their defense due to mental illness or an intellectual disability. Cases are paused until competency restoration — often involving medication, therapy and court education — is completed, either in a state hospital or through a jail-based program.
A San Antonio Report investigation published in September found the average wait time in Bexar County for a state forensic psychiatric hospital bed for non-maximum-security inmates over a 12-month period was 277 days — about a month longer than the statewide average, based on Texas Health and Human Services data.
For misdemeanor defendants, the delays can outlast the maximum sentence itself. Under Texas law, a Class B misdemeanor is punishable by up to 180 days in jail; a Class A misdemeanor carries up to one year. Some non-maximum-security defendants found incompetent on misdemeanor charges can wait longer for a hospital bed than the sentence they would face if convicted.
When that happens, defendants “time out” — reaching the legal maximum period of confinement without being restored — and cases can be dismissed, often with referrals to civil or outpatient treatment.
“On any given day, we know that we have between 80 and 100 individuals sitting in Bexar County Jail with a low-level offense, and a mental health and or a substance use disorder,” LeBlanc-Jamison said. “We have the opportunity for us to take out 80 to 100 individuals and put them in treatment at the right time.”
LeBlanc-Jamison said the diversion center concept is intended to help break that cycle by offering treatment earlier, reducing unnecessary jail bookings, and easing pressure on an overcrowded jail system already forced to manage a growing behavioral health population.
In support of the effort, CHCS is working to advance the concept through a request for proposals for a feasibility study that would evaluate the cost, operational models and infrastructure needs of a diversion center in Bexar County. Officials highlighted diversion models in other major Texas counties as potential roadmaps. Harris County was referenced as an example due to reported reductions in jail bookings and psychiatric emergencies among participants.
LeBlanc-Jamison described the diversion center as a short-term stabilization option. Under the models CHCS is exploring, eligible individuals would be screened and assessed, then placed into a short-term residential program — potentially for up to 14 days — followed by discharge planning and aftercare services intended to stabilize individuals longer-term and reduce repeat contact with law enforcement.
Council members and community speakers stressed that any diversion center would need to be paired with robust wraparound services, including housing support. Castillo emphasized that the aftercare piece — particularly housing and reintegration — would need to be central to the ad hoc committee’s work.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, staff recommended the city partner with CHCS as it moves forward with the feasibility study. The recommendation includes a $30,000 city contribution toward the study, funded through the San Antonio Police Department budget, with no additional appropriations required.
LeBlanc-Jamison said the feasibility study is expected to cost between $100,000 and $120,000. University Health is expected to contribute $30,000, and the remaining funds have already been raised through philanthropic sources, she said.
The window for proposals closes Jan. 30. The CHCS board is expected to review proposals Feb. 10 — one day before the CCR is briefed during the Feb. 11 City Council B Session. LeBlanc-Jamison said the ultimate goal for the feasibility study is to produce a plan council can act on during the next fiscal year’s budget or bond discussions.
If approved by council, the CCR would move San Antonio closer to formalizing a diversion framework that officials say could reduce strain on law enforcement and the jail system, while improving the chances that people with behavioral health needs are connected to treatment before another arrest.
